Everyone with their own device: five pieces of advice

Orange also has its own Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) project. Orange staff members will soon be able to use their own tablets and mobile devices for work. The most important systems (iOS, Android and Windows) will be supported.

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“Our approach is to internally test the new technology in advance,” says Michaël Peeters, Enterprise IT Director at Orange. “But the real advantage of our BYOD project is in the increased productivity and the mobility of our staff members. And because everyone can bring their own device to work with them, you also appear to be a more attractive employer,” Michaël Peeters points out.

The experience with this BYOD project is also very important for Orange as a service provider. “Our internal IT service will have the experience to support the Enterprise Mobility 3.0 offer from Orange in the market. Such a collaboration is unique for our company,” he says. Based on his own experience as an IT Director, Michaël Peeters offers a few tips that your company can also use in bringing a BYOD project to life.

1 - Begin with a pilot project and gradually expand

“You are best off with a small user-group, preferably with participants from a range of departments,” says Michaël Peeters. As a company, you can use this method to test how the infrastructure, including the Wi-Fi network, reacts to intense mobile use. At the same time, you’ll also get an idea of how much time and support mobile devices demand in a company environment.

2 - Make formal agreements with the personnel

No BYOD without a clear policy and agreements pertaining to information security, the necessary anti virus software on mobile devices, secure passwords, the possibility of remotely deleting company data, etc.

3 - Keep an eye on the IT costs

It’s important to realise that the active support of mobile devices may demand more resources. “We have taken care of that by largely recreating the service desk as a do-it-yourself service for the end-users. We are very frequently contacted with the same problems or questions, such as forgotten passwords. Now that runs automatically or via our self-service portal.”

4 - Keep the tax department in mind

“We still provide employees with a desktop or laptop computer and offer the possibilities of BYOD on top of this. All are work instruments, but only the desktop and the laptop fall into a fiscally-beneficial category. If there are going to be changes made to the tax rules, then new, more flexible models are feasible, such as Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) and the disappearance of the company computer.”

5 - The real extra value is in the apps

Companies can manage and secure their mobile devices, but the related apps steal the show. “They make it possible to perform a large number of tasks when you are on the road, which can offer clear advantages and productivity improvements.”

For more useful tips about BYOD, read our free whitepaper about the new relation between work and private, and the evolution in communication that is inextricably linked to it. Download the whitepaper here.

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